It’s so important for minorities in the industry to reveal their truths!

In a recent article for the New York Times, twenty-eight different actors and actresses opened up about diversity in Hollywood in a piece titled What It’s Really Like to Work in Hollywood.​ Voices like Mindy Kaling, Jussie Smollett, andAmerica Ferrera were just some of the talent that participated in the project.

America: “I had just won a top award at Sundance, and my manager wanted me to audition for the Latina chubby girl in a pilot. She wasn’t even the lead; she was just the sidekick, with the same joke in every scene. I said, ‘I’m not going in for that.’ When I ultimately left him, he told another of my reps, ‘Somebody should tell that girl that she has an unrealistic idea of what she can accomplish in this industry.’ That was someone I was paying to represent me.”

Mindy: “My role is not just artist. It’s also activist because of the way I look. On so many shows and movies, race was a gesture, and in mine it’s the premise. I can’t ignore that what a lot of people see is an Indian woman who doesn’t look like a Bollywood star. It piques their interest, and they’re not bad for wanting me to tell stories about it, and I’m not wrong for not wanting to. I want to fill my desire to write vibrant, flawed characters, but then also be a role model to young people. It’s stuff that I think about all the time. Some people don’t have to think about this at all.”

Jussie: “I had posted something that was very political, and the amount of negative comments was really heart-wrenching. Then, at a restaurant this older black dude walked up and said, ‘I didn’t want to bother you, I didn’t want a selfie, I just wanted to let you know that the story line of Jamal really made it easier for me to talk to my son about his sexuality.’ I needed him at that moment. But apparently he needed the story line at the moment.”

What powerful stories! You can check out all the messages from other celebs HERE.